ABC Dominates Sunday with a Strong Open for ‘GCB’

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ABC dominated Sunday night in Adults 18-49 over all-original competition on the other nets, outdelivering CBS by 24%, Fox by 30% and NBC by 53%. It was ABC’s 3rd straight night this week to rank #1 in the key young adult sales demo.

In Adults 18-49, the Net matched itstop-rated Sunday with regular programming in 1-year– since 3/6/11.

Hitting season highs for its 3rd consecutive airing, America’s Funniest Home Videos rose 10% over its last broadcast to equal its best Adult 18-49 number in well over 2 years – since 1/31/10.

Gaining ground for its 2nd straight broadcast (coming off a pre-emption the prior week for the Oscars), ABC’s Once Upon a Time won the 8 o’clock hour in viewers and young adults to finish as Sunday’s #1 broadcast among Adults 18-49.Dominating from 8-9pm with young adults, ABC’s Once Upon a Time outran CBS’ The Amazing Race by 21%, Fox’s animated comedies by 48% (The Simpsons/Napoleon Dynamite) and NBC’s encore Celebrity Apprentice by 209%.

Growing its numbers for its 2nd telecast in a row, Once Upon a Time was up over its last airing two weeks ago by 8% in Total Viewers and by 10% in Adults 18-49 to mark its best performance since the end of January – since 1/29/12.

Up over its most-recent airing two weeks agoin viewers (+8%) and young adults (+14%), ABC’s Desperate Housewives led the pack in the 9 o’clock hour with young adults (tied w/Fox’s comedies), outpacing NBC’s Celebrity Apprentice by 14%, and CBS’ The Good Wife by 39%.

Housewives drew its biggest audience in 8 weeks and hit a 6-week high with young adults – since 1/8/12 and 1/22/12, respectively.

Exhibiting strong retention of its Housewives lead-in (93% in viewers/88% in young adults) during the 10 o’clock hour, ABC’s series debut of GCB finished a solid #2 in its slot against established competition, drawing 9% more viewers than the second half of NBC’s 2-hour Celebrity Apprentice and beating out CBS’ veteran CSI: Miami by 10% in Adults 18-49. The new ABC drama ranked #1 in its time period with Adults 18-34 and across all key Women(W18-34/W18-49/W25-54).

In viewers and young adults, GCB produced a 5-month high for ABC with regular programming in the time period – since 10/2/11.

· The new drama improved its hour year to year, outperforming Brothers & Sisters on the same night in both viewers (+3%) and young adults (+5%).